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Monthly Archives: March 2009

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To help promote Resident Evil 5‘s launch on Friday, March 13, Capcom and the American Red Cross are going to be hosting a blood drive at the World of Wonder Gallery from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

In addition to the happy feeling you get when you give blood, you’ll also be privy to blood drive swag, chances to grab copies of the game, and your name entered into a drawing for a red RE-themed 360. No word yet on whether it’s the same shade of red as the RROD. Also, you’ll get a chance to play the game at various gaming stations.

I’m a little late to the party with Killzone 2, another of the newly anointed messiah games for the PS3. Saw it at E3 and CES, liked what I saw, finally got to play it this week.

As far as first-person shooters go, I look at this game as the anti-Halo. Not in terms of popularity, but it how it feels. While the Halo series (and other PC shooters before it) have always been a haven for bouncy, up-and-down, gravity defying shooter action, Killzone 2 is rooted to the ground, both in philosophy and gameplay. It’s a meat-and-potatoes first-person shooter that will leave you with dirt and blood on your fingernails as opposed to inspired visions of intergalactic heroism.

The controls took some getting used to for me, but it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re bad. I’m not sure of the designers’ intentions, but you feel like you’re steering a guy who is not only carry a lot of weaponry, but it’s HEAVY weaponry — so it could stand to reason that one should not except the ability to whip your gun around at high speed. Then again, perhaps I’m overthinking, and the controls just feel sluggish at first. We’ll see. I’m on the final level (I think) and I plan to finish off the single player tonight. It’s a little short — it took me less than five hours to get there.

The visuals don’t particularly shock me, since I’ve already seen the game. They’re still excellent, comparable with the destroyed beauty concept we saw in the Gears of War games. Add in the waves of f-bombs from Rico and the other soldiers you run with for sounds, and you’ve got the foundation for some wartime atmosphere.

I’ll be trying multiplayer this week as well. You’ll get a review after that.

I was never really afraid of F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin. If anything, I was happy.

That probably sounds strange considering we’re talking about a game with tons of blood and a crazy dead girl with the power to bend minds.

But it’s everything surrounding the creepiness that makes this game one of the cooler shooters of the year. Unlike “Dead Space,” which constantly chewed away at your comfort zone, F.E.A.R. 2 elects to give your sense of reality a hard shake and a slap when you least expect it.